Why did my nasal pillows start leaking & what to do about it

[emmagoldman44]

I've been using AirFit P10 For Her Nasal Pillows for over 6 months. After an initial period of adjustment, I was quite happy that I didn't have the leakage problems that I had with the FFM and nasal masks. When I started getting leaks and getting woken up from that, I figured it was time to replace them. However, the new ones of exact same size are leaking just the same!

I have tried using wax based ointments to increase the tackiness, and using a little rubber band around the base of the intake of each pillow to add to the height, and also going from med to large but it still leaks and wakes me up.

I have heard that one can't get rid of all leakage, you just have to live with some leakage, but my sleep was so much better with zero leakage that I had before, not to mention the dry encrusted eye problems in the mornings. That is another weird thing: it is almost like the leaked air is bouncing off the hose and getting redirected at one or other of my eyes. Never had that before with the nasal pillows.

So I have read all about the pad a cheek liners and am thinking I should get one and use it with my old F&P nasal mask . It leaks a fair bit but maybe with a liner could be okay.

Question: can you use the liners with an old mask or do you still need a new mask with the liner?

Thanks so much. And if there is some online site where each mask is rated for how much it leaks... whoo hooo!

[kteague]

Any chance your straps are losing their elasticity and need tightened? If the only reason you quit using a nasal mask was light leaks it wouldn't hurt to try a liner. You do not need a new mask to try the liner.

[aspen]

Contrarily, have you got the straps pulled too tightly? If mine are tight, I have more leakage. Best fit is a little loose, and I generally have no leaks.

[Pugsy]

Any chance that you only changed the nasal pillow and didn't change the P10 headgear? I am with kteague on this one. My first suspect after 6 months was also the pillow but when I changed the pillow it didn't fix the leaks. So then I got new headgear and that fixed the leaks.
If you didn't get new headgear and you are still using the old headgear try washing it in really hot water so that it can shrink up in size.
I had been doing this but finally it wouldn't shrink up enough and I needed new headgear.

[emmagoldman44]

Thanks Pugsy & kteague for the suggestion about the loose headgear. That might be a factor. Sadly, I pulled and stretched the headgear intentionally because it kept getting so brutally uncomfortable to have the pillows smashed up into my nose. I think I have a larger than average head for a woman. Well, I do have a new headgear that I can swap and see the difference... maybe I'll take a little extra sleeping medication dosage to tolerate the discomfort, just to see if my leaks improve.

One other factor is that I did increase my pressure, resulting in about 1 - 1.4 cc more on average, which of course would only worsen any leakage. Before, my Med pressure was only 6 and 95% was 7.3.

Come to think of it, my modus operandi used to be: use the pillows in the first half of my night, wake up with pain from the straps & on the nose, and also the sleep meds worn off, then switch to the nasal mask to have different pressure points on my head and take the discomfort off my nose. Worked pretty well until the nasal mask started leaking unbearably and irritating my eyes.

Thanks also for the tip that I don't need a new mask if I get the pad a cheek liner. So you never need a new mask with those liners? The cost savings alone would be reason to use them!!!

[Julie]

A little word of caution - not every one is happy with liners for every mask... most find improvement, but not all, all the time, and certainly I wouldn't assume you'll never need a new mask - there are other mask factors that make that unrealistic, e.g. weight gain, headgear and silicone wear, etc. The liners also need cleaning and are usually only good for a limited number of 'wears'.

[Pugsy]

Thanks also for the tip that I don't need a new mask if I get the pad a cheek liner. So you never need a new mask with those liners?

Well maybe not "Never need a new mask" but the mask liners will greatly extend the life of most masks.
Eventually headgear wears out and eventually the silicone gets tired even if we don't wash it as often because of using the liners.

Did you get the regular P10 package for the "for Her" package?
If you got the for Her package you might try the regular package if the for Her headgear was too tight initially. The regular package headgear is a bit larger.

You can try a new nasal pillow..see if it helps with the leaks or not. If it does then you have your answer but if it doesn't then you might try shrinking the headgear a bit with the hot soapy wash or just getting new headgear.
Headgear can be obtained separately if you wish. Check EBay...sometimes some killer hot deals on new headgear can be found.

If your headgear is pink/gray...that's the for Her headgear. The blue/gray is the regular and I might have one you can have...I would need to look.
I think I got a blue one by mistake and the blue is a bit too big for me after I use it much. I might have one that has never been used.
That was what I used first and it did stretch out too much after about 10 months. Switched to the pink/gray and still on that headgear after a year with no need to do the hot water trick to shrink it.

Let me know if you want to try the blue headgear and I will look to see if I have a new one. I don't remember if I gave it away already or not.